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"I've never seen anything like it in my whole 47 years, I couldn't believe it. It was just so weird to see, it was slimy and almost alien-ish, and it had a shine to it.

"There were lots of other people looking round it and we were all simply fascinated, it must have been 50 foot long by 20 foot wide. Three trees were covered, right to the top including the branches. It looks like little caterpillars, and everything the web is covered on is dead, they've eaten right through it all.

"The webs and caterpillars are harmless and the webs will disappear over the summer.

"Trees can suffer if there are large numbers of caterpillars but usually bounce back.

"There are other web forming caterpillars but judging by the extent of the webs I think ermine moths are the most likely species in this case."

Tim Sexton, from Attenborough Nature Reserve, also identified it as an ermine moth caterpillar and added: "There are 8 species in the UK and the adults are generally white with up to 5 rows of black spots.

"The larvae spin webs to protect themselves from predators.

"They will appear as an adult moth in July - August.

"The Bird-Cherry Ermine is a regular visitor to the Attenborough moth trap in the summer months."

Holme Pierrepont were unable to comment on the occurrence but said they were looking into it.